Joe Biden Talks Sexual Violence at Oscars: ‘Let’s Change the Culture’

Joe Biden 88th Academy Awards
ABC/screenshot

Vice President Joe Biden gave a brief speech in support of victims of sexual violence while introducing Lady Gaga at the Academy Awards on Sunday night.

“Too many women and men… are still victims of sexual abuse,” Joe Biden said, after receiving a raucous standing ovation.

Biden urged the Oscars audience and viewers watching at home to “take the pledge, a pledge that says, ‘I will intervene in situations where consent cannot or has not been given.'”

“We must and can change the culture so that no abused woman or man like the survivors you will see tonight ever feel like they have to ask themselves, ‘What did I do?'” he continued. “They did nothing wrong.”

Gaga took the stage immediately after Joe Biden’s comments to perform her Best Original Song-nominated “‘Til It Happens To You,” from the campus rape documentary The Hunting Ground. Gaga was joined onstage by dozens of victims of sexual assault who linked arms behind her as she performed.

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